Inside Out
Halloween
WORKSHEET A
On the night of 1)_____________ you can find Halloween parties in various different
parts of the world, but it is probably true to say that the Halloween tradition is
strongest in the United States, Canada, Britain and Ireland.
Anyone who has ever been to a Halloween fancy-dress party will know that
3)_____________, ghosts and other scary creatures are the most popular costumes.
To understand the reason for this we must go back more than 2,000 years to the preChristian religious festivals of the Celtic peoples of Britain and Ireland. From what
we know of the Celts, it seems part of their religious calendar was a night at the
beginning of winter when they believed the spirits of dead people could return to walk
the earth. On this night some Celtic tribes lit bonfires to scare away evil spirits, or
even disguised themselves as ghosts so that the real ghosts would not
5)____________. The event survived into the Christian era, and eventually received
the name of Halloween and a fixed date in the modern calendar – 31st October.
In the nineteenth century, Irish and British (particularly Scottish) people who
emigrated to North America took their Halloween tradition with them, and in the
7)____________ it spread all over the US and Canada. Nowadays in the US, for
example, people spend more on decorations and parties during Halloween than during
any other annual festival apart from Christmas.
One of the most well-known Halloween decorations is a hollow 9)_____________,
usually with a candle inside, and a mouth and eyes cut into the skin to make a scarylooking ‘face’. As for Halloween activities, one of the most traditional is ‘trick or
treating’ in which 11)_____________ – sometimes dressed as ghosts or witches, or in
some other Halloween costume – go around knocking on people’s doors on the
evening of October 31st and asking for small ‘treats’, usually sweets. A recent survey
in the US suggested that more than 13)_____________ of children expect to go trickor-treating on Halloween night.
Some people think the origin of trick or treating is a Scottish tradition called
‘guising’, in which children do something like tell a joke or 15)_____________ in
return for their treat. In many places, however, the children offer nothing in return:
they just say they will play a ‘trick’ of some kind if they don’t receive a treat. Trickor-treating is mostly very good-humoured, and almost all adults are happy to give out
sweets. Normally, therefore, trick or treaters receive a lot of sugary things during the
evening, meaning Halloween is possibly the worst event in the year for children’s
teeth.
This page has been downloaded from www.insideout.net.
It is photocopiable, but all copies must be complete pages. Copyright © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2007.
Inside Out
Halloween
WORKSHEET B
On the night of October 31st you can find Halloween parties in various different parts
of the world, but it is probably true to say that the Halloween tradition is strongest in
the United States, Canada, Britain and 2)_____________.
Anyone who has ever been to a Halloween fancy-dress party will know that witches,
ghosts and other scary creatures are the most popular costumes. To understand the
reason for this we must go back more than 2,000 years to the pre-Christian religious
festivals of the Celtic peoples of Britain and Ireland. From what we know of the Celts,
it seems part of their religious calendar was a night at the beginning of winter when
they believed the spirits of dead people could return to walk the earth. On this night
some Celtic tribes 4)_____________ to scare away evil spirits, or even disguised
themselves as ghosts so that the real ghosts would not attack them. The event survived
into the Christian era, and eventually received the name of Halloween and a fixed date
in the modern calendar – October 31st.
In the nineteenth century, Irish and British (particularly Scottish) people who
emigrated to North America took their 6)_____________ with them, and in the
twentieth century it spread all over the US and Canada. Nowadays in
8)_____________, for example, people spend more on decorations and parties during
Halloween than during any other annual festival apart from Christmas.
One of the most well-known Halloween decorations is a hollow pumpkin, usually
with a 10)_____________ inside, and a mouth and eyes cut into the skin to make a
scary-looking ‘face’. As for Halloween activities, one of the most traditional is ‘trick
or treating’ in which children and teenagers – sometimes dressed as ghosts or witches,
or in some other Halloween costume – go around knocking on people’s doors on the
evening of October 31st and asking for small ‘treats’, usually 12)_____________. A
recent survey in the US suggested that more than three-quarters of children expect to
go trick-or-treating on Halloween night.
14)_____________ think the origin of trick or treating is a Scottish tradition called
‘guising’, in which children do something like tell a joke or sing a song in return for
their treat. In many places, however, the children offer nothing in return: they just say
they will play a ‘trick’ of some kind if they don’t receive a treat. Trick-or-treating is
mostly very good-humoured, and almost all adults are happy to give out sweets.
Normally, therefore, trick or treaters receive a lot of 16)_____________ during the
evening, meaning Halloween is possibly the worst event in the year for children’s
teeth.
This page has been downloaded from www.insideout.net.
It is photocopiable, but all copies must be complete pages. Copyright © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2007.
Inside Out
Part A
GROUP A
Write the questions:
1. When ______________________________________________________________?
3. What _____________________________________________________________?
5. Why _______________________________________________________________?
7. When _____________________________________________________________?
9. What _____________________________________________________________?
11. Who ______________________________________________________________?
13. How many _________________________________________________________?
15. In ‘guising’, what ___________________________________________________?
…………………………………………………………………………………………..
Part A
GROUP B
Write the questions:
2. Where _____________________________________________________________?
4. What ______________________________________________________________?
6. What ______________________________________________________________?
8. Where ____________________________________________________________?
10. What ____________________________________________________________?
12. What _____________________________________________________________?
14. Who ______________________________________________________________?
16. What _____________________________________________________________?
This page has been downloaded from www.insideout.net.
It is photocopiable, but all copies must be complete pages. Copyright © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2007.
Inside Out
Halloween
WORKSHEET C
Part B
On the night of October 31st you can find Halloween parties in (1) v _ _ _ o u s
different parts of the world, but it is probably true to say that the Halloween tradition
is strongest in the United States, Canada, (2) _ _ _ _ _ i n and Ireland.
Anyone who has ever been to a Halloween (3) f _ _ _ _-dress party will know that
(4) w _ _ _ _ e s, ghosts and other (5) _ _ _ r y creatures are the most popular
costumes. To understand the reason for this we must go back more than 2,000 years to
the pre-(6) C _ _ _ s t _ _ n religious festivals of the Celtic peoples of Britain and
Ireland. From what we know of the Celts, it seems part of their religious calendar was
a night at the beginning of winter when they believed the (7) s _ _ _ i t s of dead
people could return to walk the earth. On this night some Celtic tribes lit bonfires to
(8) s _ _ r e away evil spirits, or even disguised themselves as ghosts so that the real
ghosts would not attack them. The event survived into the Christian era, and
eventually received the name of Halloween and a fixed date in the modern calendar –
October 31st.
In the nineteenth century, Irish and British (particularly Scottish) people who
emigrated to North America took their Halloween tradition with them, and in the
twentieth century it (9) s _ _ _ a d all over the US and Canada. Nowadays in the US,
for example, people spend more on decorations and parties during Halloween than
during any other annual festival apart from Christmas.
One of the most well-known Halloween (10) _ _ _ o r _ _ i o n s is a (11) _ _ _ _ o w
pumpkin with a candle inside, and a mouth and eyes cut into the skin to make a scarylooking ‘face’. As for Halloween activities, one of the most traditional is ‘trick or
treating’ in which children and teenagers – sometimes dressed as ghosts or witches, or
in some other Halloween costume – go around (12) k _ _ _ _ i n g on people’s doors
on the evening of October 31st and asking for small ‘treats’, usually sweets. A recent
survey in the US suggested that more than three-quarters of children (13) e _ _ _ c t to
go trick-or-treating on Halloween night.
Some people think the (14) o _ _ _ i n of trick or treating is a Scottish tradition called
‘guising’, in which children do something like (15) _ _ _ l a joke or sing a song in
return for their treat. In many places, however, the children offer nothing in return:
they just say they will play a ‘trick’ of some kind if they don’t receive a treat. Trickor-treating is mostly very (16) g _ _ _-h _ _ o u _ _ _, and almost all adults are happy
to give out sweets. Normally, therefore, trick-or-treaters receive a lot of sugary items
during the evening, meaning Halloween is possibly the worst event in the year for
children’s teeth.
This page has been downloaded from www.insideout.net.
It is photocopiable, but all copies must be complete pages. Copyright © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2007.